Bravery award for flood hero who was ‘just doing his job’

SENIOR Constable Daven Richards said he always knows in the back of his mind when he heads to work each day he could face a dangerous situation.

But nothing could have prepared him for what happened on January 7, 2011, at Kilkivan.

Senior Constable Richards, along with his colleagues, responded to an unfolding emergency in which two people were trapped in a bus that was stranded in rising water at Widgee Creek at the height of the 2011 flood disaster.

When he arrived at the scene he learnt that the bus was about 200m from the water's edge.

In complete darkness, he waded out to a point where he could locate the bus, then decided to swim towards it.

After reaching the bus he realised that the current was too strong to rescue the people safely so he swam back against the current to retrieve an SES boat and safely rescued the two elderly occupants.

Senior Constable Richards received a bravery award for his actions at a ceremony at Government House in Brisbane yesterday.

He said after the ceremony he was simply doing his job.

"When we first arrived the water was rising extremely quickly," he said.

"There was no time to think really, everything happened very quickly."